


tuck your chin

by Starcrossedsky



Series: Bladework [4]
Category: Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Alternate Universe, Political AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-20 01:42:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11910591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starcrossedsky/pseuds/Starcrossedsky
Summary: "Second, and far more important: tuck your chin. You’re going to get hurt, so expect it and be ready. You may as well see it coming."- Achmed the Snake,Rhapsody, Child of BloodAnyone watching Ion would notice the changes his friendship with Asch works on him.Only two people actually bother.





	tuck your chin

**Author's Note:**

> throws obscure fantasy novel quote into the summary
> 
> Alternating Anise and Arietta POV, covering all of To Be and Sword and just into the beginning of Scabbard, plus a little bit of the gap between. 
> 
> I feel like Arietta in particular often gets the short end of the stick from fandom - she's not _stupid_ , just verbally and socially stunted in a way that makes her seem more like a peer to Anise, in spite of being closer in age to Asch and Tear. Anise, meanwhile, is thoroughly in the stage where she thinks she's way more mature than she is - and about to hit some hardcore cognitive dissonance over her divided loyalties, to boot. Trying to capture both was a bit of a challenge, but hopefully it comes off okay.

_\----Anise_

You are too young for this.

That's what everyone says, the only thing anyone says about it. Ion is known for favouring younger Guardians - and who can blame him, when he became Fon Master before he was ten? - but the older girls who used to make fun of you and who now glare at you in envy are all older than him. You're a year younger, and now the sole Fon Master Guardian.

It's all anyone can say about it; Daath feeds on every rumor, picks them apart until there's nothing but bones left, so of course you hear it wherever you go. You're just lucky that the arrival of a new kid hand-picked by Commandant Grants means you're sharing the spotlight. If you were the only topic for conversation, you think that you might die.

It's terrifying. But you have taken care of your parents as best you could even while you were in officer school. You have experience in doing the job while terrified, and in not letting it show. You can do this.

(Secretly, you're grateful that Mohs gave you an assignment that will keep you mostly close to Daath. You're still scared of leaving your parents - not because you can't handle being on your own, but because who knows what will happen to them without you?)

_\----Arietta_

You aren't Ion's Guardian anymore. And Van won't even tell you why.

It's different for the other former Guardians - they complain, but mostly at the loss of what they thought was an easy job, or because they're in units with men now. (You don't get that, but you'll never realize how untouchable you are, compared to the other girls in the Order. Everybody fears your friends.)

You - you were special. You were _Ion's_ , his truest and best Guardian, his precious -

You're not, anymore. Without that, you don't know what you are. Van wants you to be a God-General, wants you to work under him, since you can't work for Ion anymore.

Ion supported Van. So you agree, because you think that that's what he would want, and then you run to the safety of your brother's thick mane to hide your tears.

_\----Anise_

Ion is bright, Ion is smiling, and Ion never leaves his room. These are the cardinal rules of your first six months as his guardian. It's more like _babysitting_ than it is like you were told being a Fon Master Guardian was going to be, but you don't really mind that much. Ion's easier to handle than your parents, especially when he gets sick; he doesn't really object to much, so you can work on your sewing in the corner while he does paperwork. You spend a lot of lazy afternoons with him in the warm sunlight.

Until, suddenly, he's got a folder under his arm and he's walking down to Oracle HQ with _purpose_ , his eyes set dead ahead, leaving you to scurry behind.

You can't help but keep your eyes on the folder the whole time. Rumor around the cathedral is that it was delivered by _Asch the Bloody_ , of all people, straight up to Ion's office instead of through the usual channels. You're not dumb; you know Asch doesn't make time for anyone, much less deliver reports himself, unless it's something serious.

You're sure that Mohs would dearly like to know the contents of that folder. As much as you try to sneak a peek, though, it can't be helped that when Ion comes to a stop (at _Cantabile's_ office, of all places), you have to stand guard outside the door.

Three days later, Cantabile is the new head of the Fon Master Guard, and you have a lot of new (adult, veteran) coworkers to meet. Internally, you wince, and hope that Mohs considers your reduced hours enough punishment for your failure to report.

_\----Arietta_

You don't want to run a division. Running a division, it turns out, is a lot of paperwork that you can only barely read, and an office in Oracle Headquarters where you sit, sounding out words by yourself as you try to make sense of the documents. 

And Cantabile is the new head of the Fon Master Guard. It took a while, but in the end, Ion replaced you.

Instead of your paperwork, you go to Van, and you scream and you cry with all your might, but there's nothing he can do. The Fon Master Guard is Ion's to run; even the Commandant can't do anything to change its personnel, if Ion's made up his mind.

It's unfair. It's so unfair. But Van promises that he'll do what he can, so you keep going, anyway.

_\----Anise_

Ion invites _Asch the Bloody_ to dinner. It is quite possibly the strangest thing that has ever happened in Daath, stranger yet because (when you lurk around the corner to watch), Asch leaves the dinner _smiling_ , a mango cradled in one elbow. It's a little tiny smile, more of just a not-frown, but it's there, you'd bet every gald you have on it.

He doesn't seem like such a scary, bad guy, when he smiles.

The next day you sit in your usual chair beside Ion's desk, and in a moment of relative silence, you ask, "So... What's up with you and Commander Asch?"

Ion blinks at you for a moment, seemingly confused, but then smiles. You're still learning him, but you think that's his smile when he's hiding something. "Ah - he did me a favor and I wanted to thank him. That's all."

"Really?" you say. "Seems like a lot of trouble to go through for a favor. I heard you requested something special from the cooks and everything."

"Jealous, Anise?" Ion says, and there, that's why you like this job so much. Everyone thinks Ion is just quiet, but he's one of the only people in the cathedral willing to tease you back, instead of looking down on you because you're a kid. (Not that he's much older than you, really.) "There's still time to have the kitchens make you something special, too, though I don't know how they'd feel about doing it two days in a row."

"Nono, it's fine," you say quickly. "I was just kind of wondering, that's all."

Ion accepts your words with a nod, and goes back to the papers he was reading. You frown at your lap once he's not looking. It looks like you aren't going to get any answers out of him.

Asking Asch, of course, is out of the question. If he knew you saw him smiling, he'd probably stab you or something.

_\----Arietta_

You didn't used to pay attention to days much. Knowing what season it was in the forest was enough (and you have more words for seasons than humans do, because when you live in nature there's so much more than _spring, summer, fall, winter_ , there's thaw-time and small-sprouts and leaf-bloom and rain-start and that's just what humans call "spring").

Now you pay attention to every date, because you live among humans and they care about _months_ and _numbers_ , not when the rain starts and when prey comes out to feed on the first green shoots of spring. And they celebrate the New Year in the middle of winter. Ion will give a speech in front of everyone and then - 

And then what? He used to come and sit with you, because he knew the sound of the fireworks scared you - loud bangs like that in the forest meant thunderstorm or some other disaster that every creature in their right mind hid away from. Now you don't know what he's going to do.

For all you know, he might sit with _Asch_. Van's student doesn't like anyone, except that very recently he seems to have decided he likes Ion. And unlike you, he gets to go up to Ion's rooms whenever he wants. He gets to stand up with Ion behind the altar, too.

You wind up waiting in the usual place after Ion's speech, anyway, but he never comes.

_\----Anise_

One day, Ion changes. You're not sure how to put your finger on it, but he seems to relax a little less around you.

The next day, Mohs orders you to keep an eye on his relationship with Asch - and he's _angry_ about it, too. It takes a couple days of digging through the rumour mill to find out that Asch basically told him to screw off, instead of giving him a report intended for Ion.

It's all weird. It's not like they even _talk_ , outside of the times Asch brings Ion reports and that weird dinner. You think Mohs is driving himself crazy over nothing.

Oh well, it's Mohs. You do what you gotta do.

_\----Arietta_

Ion's birthday is a disaster. At least you're invited, but you're seated pretty far away from him, not by his side like you used to be. And not only is _Anise_ there, but so's _Asch_ , and he keeps getting between you. Other than the two of you and Ion, he's the smallest person in the room, so how does he keep popping up in the middle?

You're really starting to get annoyed with him, and you want to either scream or cry because he's the only one who even looks at you, but - 

While the main course is being served, he looks struck by something, and a few minutes later, when Anise is testing your patience again, he says, "Knock it _off_ , you two. You don't think Ion wants you fighting on his birthday, do you?"

And, well, maybe he's right. You sit quiet for the rest of the meal, and you start watching him.

_\----Anise_

You're just starting to think that Mohs was being needlessly paranoid over the whole _Asch thing_ when he shows up again. You're taking the warp down from Ion's chambers at the end of your shift when you smell - _something_. Something unfairly delicious.

You don't have to follow your nose far to run into Asch, carrying some kind of soup on a tray in the direction of the warp. Tucked under all the bowls and spoons you can see the edge of one of the paper folders he favors for reports.

Damn it, damn it, damn it. There's no way you can go back _up_ to Ion's rooms with him without it looking super suspicious. At least you'll be able to report that there _was_ a folder. 

You lean in towards the spicy-smelling steam, but Asch is of course too neat to have left anything poking out of the sides of the folder that might give you a clue to its contents. Even the label is - not quite blank, but it only has a date and a drop of colored ink that must indicate something to Asch. He seems like the sort of guy to have some sort of bizarre coded filing system that only he can understand.

"Save some for me next time," you tell him, and make your escape while he's still staring at you in sudden confusion. You're suddenly starving.

_\----Arietta_

The news that Asch brought Ion soup is all over the cathedral in hours. It reaches your ears early the next morning, from one of the girls who used to be a Guardian with you, now in the Intelligence Division.

It's... Strange. You know why Anise sticks close to Ion - because Mohs wants her to. Asch is a mystery; as far as you knew, he only listened to Van, and Van...

Van doesn't seem to care much about Ion anymore. He doesn't even know how the boy is doing, unless you pester him to find out, and they don't talk anymore like they used to. It's like Ion changed overnight, and doesn't want anything to do with his old friends anymore.

The few times you've gotten to talk with him... You aren't good at human socialization, but you're not stupid. There's a distance to him now, a feeling like he's keeping you at arms' reach.

You consider asking Asch, but... He doesn't seem to like you very much. Not that he likes anyone very much, but aside from that time at Ion's birthday dinner, the way he looks at you is just _dismissive_ , like you're not worth worrying about.

You finally work up the courage to go ask him, anyway, only to find that he's not in his office - Van's _sister_ is there instead, with her nose in a book, and the two of you look at each other in confusion for a moment before you duck back away from the door.

 _\----Anise_

Asch comes back from some mission off somewhere, and _immediately_ reports to Ion. You know this, because you're in the room at the time; for once, Asch doesn't seem to be too concerned with keeping the talk absolutely private.

It's incredibly weird, doubly so because from everything you've heard about Asch, he's usually in his _worst_ moods immediately after missions, regardless of their success or failure. But now he's...

Cheerful. That's the only way you can really describe it, as uncanny as it is. He's cheerful. There's a different sort of energy in his step, he's _almost_ smiling - 

He barely glances at you before his eyes latch onto Ion. "Mission accomplished," is all he says.

"Excellent!" Ion says, brightening. "I'm glad to hear it. Is there anything else?"

"I'm stealing Sergeant Grants from Mohs," Asch answers, and you stab yourself painfully as you put your needle through Tokunaga, because that almost sounded like a _joke_. And Asch and jokes absolutely do not mix, ever, not in the entire history of the planet. But you also can't imagine that he's _serious_.

Ion just shakes his head, a look of faint amusement on his face. "Right. Be about your other business, then."

Asch slips out at the dismissal, and it's only then that Ion even looks back in your direction. He takes in where you're sucking on your finger with some amount of alarm. "Anise! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," you say. "I just poked myself, Ion, really."

You add the fact that Ion didn't even notice your flub until Asch was gone to your mental list of notes about their relationship, and you wonder.

_\----Arietta_

You come across Anise in the kitchens. It's completely by accident, because you're just here to collect the usual amount of waste meats and other scraps that you give to your friends rather than letting them rot, and Anise is there. She's standing on a foot stool in front of one of the stoves set aside for individual use, with a too-big apron over her uniform.

She's staring into a pot so intently that she doesn't even notice you. You sneak closer, trying to sort out the smell of whatever she's making from the rest of the kitchen. You can hear her grumbling at whatever she's cooking when you get closer, too.

It's soup. You frown, and grab your scraps before you say anything. "Anise," you start, and at least making the words isn't a challenge anymore. "Doing what Asch does isn't going to make Ion like you."

"Wha - _Gloomietta_!" Anise practically shouts, using that horrible nickname she has for you. "I'm not imitating Asch! I just wanted to do something nice for Ion!"

You watch her over the top of the doll clutched in her arms. Doesn't she realize that that's exactly what Asch _does_? "...You're stupid," you say, and turn out of the kitchen while she's still trying to decide which she hates more, you or the uncooperative soup.

_\----Anise_

Ion plans a top-secret trip to Malkuth, via an exchange of letters, for right after the New Year celebrations. It's really weird, considering that he hasn't left Daath since before you became his Guardian. Now he's going all the way to Malkuth - and without telling anyone?

You report it, of course, but it's super, super weird. You're almost not even _surprised_ to find out that Asch is involved somehow. When Ion's being weird and secretive, Asch isn't far away.

Arietta's words stick in the back of your head. You're not trying to be like Asch. Who'd want to be like Asch? He's moody and grumpy and doesn't have any friends (not that you have all that many, yourself). And that's without even getting into his reputation for violence. You don't mind fighting, but the idea of doing what Asch does, wading in somewhere and coming out covered in blood...

Though, you don't remember ever actually _seeing_ him covered in blood, so maybe the rumour mill of Daath is responsible for that one.

Still! You don't want to be Asch. You just don't understand why Ion trusts him the most out of anyone. And, okay, if you're honest - you kind of miss the days when the person Ion trusted the most was you.

At least Ion is taking you with him, even if Asch is the one who actually walks him down to the port. You wait for them just outside the borders formed by the shipping warehouses, under a tree off the side of the road.

You see Ion first - he's got a cloak over the bright white of his robes, but he's still far more visible than Asch, who is dressed in the night-colored Special Operations uniform he actually _uses_ on covert ops instead of his usual flashy red-and-black tabard. He looks more comfortable in it, you realize. He looks more comfortable with _Ion_ , his shoulders relaxed even though he's constantly glancing around and keeping watch.

And Ion - he looks content. Quiet, but not unhappy with the silence. You realize that of all the people you've seen around Ion, Asch might be the only one who doesn't tug on the Fon Master for attention somehow. Unless he has something to say, he just lets Ion be.

(Even you - if Ion doesn't have something else occupying his attention, you want to talk with him. He's never complained about it, but of course he wouldn't. It's Ion, he doesn't complain about anything. You briefly resolve to try not to do that _all_ the time anymore, and shove the Arietta-sounding stupid voice saying _Like Asch_ out of your mind.)

You know better than to think Asch can't see you, the way he's looking around - he probably saw you first. You wave a little, and then say, "There you are!" when they get close enough.

You want to be on the road already, but - well, a few minutes spent teasing Asch isn't going to hurt anything. Especially the way he reacts, like no one's ever teased him before, every time you get the chance to do it.

_\----Arietta_

Ion goes missing overnight.

Everyone is frantic. Cantabile's men search the cathedral from top to bottom, even the rooms they're not normally allowed to go in.

You're a little smarter. You realize that Anise is also gone. Frowning, you slip into the barracks and make your way down to the Special Operations offices. Hopefully Asch will actually be there, this time; you know Van's sister took leave a few days ago, so at worst the room will be empty.

You knock hesitantly. At first you think there's not going to be a response, but then the door swings open, Asch looking down at you with a brief look of surprise before he gets grumpy again. "Come on in," he says quietly, stepping aside for you, and you're too surprised, in turn, to do anything except obey.

He closes the door behind you, and you take the chance to look around his office. Except for the couple of chairs around the desk, it's pretty much just full of papers. There's a big map on one wall with a bunch of notes pinned to it, and a couple boxes of files. Asch steps back around you and gestures to a chair, but you don't sit. His chairs are a little high for you, and people don't take you as seriously when you have to sit somewhere where your feet don't even reach the ground.

"Ion left," you say. "Do you know where he went?"

Asch watches you for a moment, and it's obvious that he's thinking really hard about how to answer. "He went to do something that Mohs wouldn't have let him do," he says, and while he speaks slowly, it's not like when most people talk slowly at you. He doesn't say it like he doesn't expect you to understand; he says it like he's hunting you, and the words are the slow approach before he pounces.

You don't like being prey. "I wish you'd gone with him instead of Anise," you say. As painful as it is, you know that Ion never would have picked you. "At least you'd keep him safe."

Asch smiles, just a little. "I'm not worried about what trouble Ion might run into. I'm worried about what might go after him."

You think about that. If Ion is doing something Mohs doesn't like... Then Asch is here to protect him, by stopping Mohs before he even gets close.

There were a few members of your pack who could hunt like that, with big distances between them, where one would scare prey towards the others in an ambush. Ion is being more like a bird with a broken wing, but that doesn't mean that Asch isn't hunting with him.

You wonder if that's why he took Anise - not because Ion doesn't know that she tells Mohs everything, but because he wants Mohs to know _exactly_ where he is.

You wish he wouldn't use himself as bait. 

"Good hunting," you say to Asch, and scurry out of the room before he can recover enough to reply. 

Later, when Mohs calls together all the God-Generals to go search for Ion (as a group, which is weird, but it's Mohs; normally Van keeps you separate), you watch Asch. He's back to scowling, but he doesn't look at you - it's everyone else he watches, especially Mohs and Sync.

You wonder if that means he approves of you.

_\----Anise_

You first see Luke out of the corner of your eye, but you don't really look at his face. It's not that important compared to finding where Ion wandered off to while you were hurriedly sending a report out. 

When you see him for the second time, in the liger queen's den - _then_ you get a good look at his face, and it's all you can do to not lose your mind.

He looks like Asch. He looks _really freakishly_ like Asch. And Ion and Tear are both acting like it's nothing, when you _know_ it has to be just as obvious to them. 

Thankfully, once you're back on board the ship, you get a few moments alone with Ion after Luke and Tear are escorted to a cabin and Jade goes to the bridge. "Ion," you start, "What on earth is going on with - "

"With Luke and Asch?" he says, and it takes you a moment to realize that he actually interrupted you. You've never seen him do that before, to anyone, and it makes you look him over again. You figured it was just that he was tired from all the walking and running from monsters he did today, but now that you look closer...

He's stressed. Even nervous. You really have never seen him jumpy like this before, though you don't think you'd be able to tell at all if you didn't know him so well. 

"Yeah," you answer simply.

"Asch would prefer that anyone not know," Ion says. "It's why he avoids going to Baticul. Luke _doesn't_ know."

"He doesn't seem to know much of anything," you say, but Ion's subtler message comes through loud and clear: _Don't tell him._ You find yourself nodding, and say, "I won't say a word, but when we get back to Daath, Asch owes me lunch for keeping his secrets."

Ion smiles. "You'll have to work that out with him, I'm afraid."

_\----Arietta_

While you were in the area anyway, you thought you would visit your family.

You come back to a pack in mourning - your mother is dead, and her eggs with her. Her den smells of fonic artes and humans. Most of the human scents, your brother and other friends from Daath recognize.

Ion. Anise. Van's sister. And, impossibly, Asch.

You don't know what to think. Asch is good at slipping away unnoticed, but not _that_ good. Your pack wants revenge, and Sync and Legretta want to attack the Tartarus, to reclaim Ion from his Malkuth kidnappers, so you do your best to have them work together.

Asch stays quiet, mostly in the background, almost forgettable, until after you've taken the ship. By then, you've seen the unconscious boy carried down into a cell, the one who looks just like him. When Legretta takes Ion _somewhere_ , somewhere that she won't let you come along to, you wind up seeking him out, in some hidden back corner of the ship.

"I'm sorry," you say to him, and when he looks up at you with the most confused expression you've ever seen him make, you continue, "About your brother. You shouldn't have to fight him."

His eyebrows scrunch together. "He's not really my brother," he says. "Today's the first time I've been in the same room as him since he was a few days old."

And you get it, really. You think that if your human parents were still alive, you'd feel the same way about them. "He killed my mommy," you say. "Him and that Malkuth soldier and Van's sister. Her den smelled like their blood."

Asch exhales slowly and looks away from you, out the porthole window next to him. "I'm sorry," he says, and he actually seems to mean it - the tone of his voice is unsure and halting, like yours is when you don't know the words for something.

"Ion was there," you add. "I don't understand why. Ion doesn't fight." You clutch tighter at the stuffed doll in your arms. At least one of your precious people is safe.

"You'd have to ask him," Asch says. 

You shift nervously from foot to foot. "He doesn't want to see me. He sent me away."

He has other people now. He doesn't need you.

Asch frowns, and goes quiet for a while, looking out the window. "I doubt it's that. He's just... a very different person from who he was when you knew him. If you start over, instead of expecting him to be the person you remember... You might be able to make friends with him again, at least."

It's... different from what anyone else has told you. Hasn't Van always said that Ion doesn't want to see you? But, Asch spends way more time with Ion than Van does.

(And you remember the first time you went home, after living in Daath for almost two years, and how afraid you were, that your family wouldn't accept you anymore. Maybe Ion feels like that, too.)

"Do you really think that?" you ask quietly, voice almost buried in the top of your doll.

Asch glances back to you, and there's a little bit of a smile on his face that seems strange on him. "I do."

_\----Anise_

_Ugh!_

Stupid God-Generals, stupid ship, stupid St. Binah...

You glance back at the city, briefly, but you can already see Oracle Knights taking up positions around the gates - just far enough away that they aren't technically _infringing_ on the Malkuth military. As much as you'd like to stay here and wait for Ion, it's not safe, and you don't want to end up trapped in the city if Jade decides it's better to skip that rendezvous point entirely.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. And Ion, telling you to run - that little...

At least the presence of monsters means that Arietta is involved. You might not like her, but you don't think she'll let anything hurt Ion. The problem is that she thinks of you in the 'things that hurt Ion' category, which is stupid. Even if you're reporting to Mohs, and you know Ion wouldn't like that at all - 

It doesn't _hurt_ him. If anything, it probably keeps him safer, most of the time. Ion can be so reckless when he gets it in his head to help someone. You're so lucky - _he's_ so lucky, that he ran into Luke and Tear on his cheagle theft adventure in the woods.

Part of you hopes Asch is with the group of Oracle Knights, too, but he doesn't exactly _help_ when it comes to Ion getting ideas like this, does he? It's one thing for Asch to go off and do dangerous stuff on his own - he's strong, he can take care of himself. But Ion can't.

You watch the soldiers for another minute or two before slipping off to the south. If Asch _is_ there, you know he'll get Ion out of the ship somehow, because he does what Ion wants even if it's not safe. Even if he isn't, Colonel Curtiss will probably cook something up. You'll have to be there to meet them.

Mohs will expect another report when you get there, too. You think back to the Tartarus, and shudder. Maybe... you'll be a little _late_ in sending this one.

(The soldiers on board the Tartarus were just doing their jobs. Just like you. And now they're dead, and it _isn't_ your fault... But it's not theirs, either.)

(For the first time, you understand what war is like. A part of you, a part you don't want to listen to, understands why Ion and Asch are so willing to do anything to stop it.)

(The rest of you just wants to go home.)


End file.
